STINGS. 



408 



STINGS. 



;i liorse is badly stung, it l)e given a dose of 

 common salt, and treated to applications of 

 hot blankets, and that the blankets be re- 

 newed often. Where hot water can not be 

 obtained, use cold. 



GETTING HARDENED TO STINGS. 



When we first commenced bee-keeping, 

 stings swelled so badly, and were so painful, 

 that we had either hands or eyes swelled up 

 most of the time, until we seriously contem- 

 plated giving up the business, just on this 





'Imfmuk 



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'■'■ OU-OO-OW-OO-O-U-C-II ! ! " 



account alone. After we had had a little more 

 practice, we discovered that there was very 

 little need of being stung at all, if one was 

 careful not to provoke the ire of the little in- 

 sects. Still further, we found the swelling to 

 be gradually less and less; and before the first 



summer was over, we very seldom felt the 

 effects of any sting, the day afterward. 

 When first commencing, if the eye was 

 swelled so as to be closed by a sting, it often 

 took until the third day to have it go down 

 entirely. The ABC class, almost without 

 exception, corroborate this experience. 



now ONE WHO IS SERIOUSI.Y AFFECTED BY 

 A SINGLE STING MAY BECOME COMPAR- 

 ATIVELY IMMUNE TO THE POISON. 



There are some who are so seriously af- 

 fected by the bee-sting poison that even a 

 single sting will cause the body 

 to break out all over in red 

 blotches. This may or may not 

 be accompanied by a difficulty 

 of breathing, and heavy pulsa- 

 tions of the heart— so heavy, 

 indeed, that they seem like 

 blows of a hammer. At such 

 times there is danger, and a 

 physician should be called at 

 once. There is, perhaps, only 

 one person in ten thousand who 

 is thus affected. So rare are 

 the reported cases that the edi- 

 tors of Gleanings in Bee CtiUurc, 

 a journal with a circulation of 

 over 80,000, do not hear of them 

 once in ten years. But there 

 are quite a number of others 

 who are less affected but who 

 inform us that a single sting 

 produces great discomfort. 

 While there is no danger of loss 

 of life, the results of a sting 

 are such that they have been 

 obliged to give up the delightful 

 pastime of keeping bees, very 

 much to their regret. We have 

 formerly advised all such per- 

 sons when going among bees to 

 be veiled and to wear gloves. 

 But in late years, we have found 

 a better remedy. It was sug- 

 gested by the fact that the av- 

 erage person becomes less and 

 less affected by the bee-sting 

 poison; and it occurred to me 

 that, inasmuch as the human 

 system has the power to with- 

 stand increasing doses of many 

 poisons, after the first one, why 

 should it not be able to immunize itself to a 

 certain extent against the virus of bee- 

 stings V It is a well-known fact, opium and 

 morphine fiends are able to take doses of 

 those drugs in amounts that would kill ten 

 people who are not in the habit of taking 



